Red Wings remember hockey great Gordie Howe

DETROIT – Ferocious on the ice with a career that is unimaginable today, Gordie Howe was still scoring goals when he was 50 years old.

Howe was tempered with an off-the-ice charm, kindness, graciousness and generosity that is hard to find in any man.

The boys getting ready for their Troy JV hockey practice who never saw him play know he's got hockey god status.

"Just the way he was, he was just an incredible ambassador," Red Wings GM Ken Holland said. "He loved people."

That's one of the reasons Howe's jersey showed up in some unlikely places, like "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and his sense of humor was on full display.

Howe's breadth of charity work was matched only by his skill on the ice.

"Everyone looked so much up to him," Drew Miller said. "He was just down to earth and that's something you appreciate because you want to be like that. You want to be a pro athlete, but you want to be down to earth and be a real person."


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